Intelligence men tailing me, says journalist

A journalist, who wrote a story on the activities of RAW, on Saturday complained to the Delhi police that men from an intelligence agency have been tailing him. Saikat Datta, who works with the ‘Outlook’ magazine, gave a complaint to the Sarojini Nagar police, alleging he had noticed three men following him in a Maruti 800 car. “I noticed the car for the first time yesterday around 2045 hours at the Moolchand bridge underpass heading towards Chirag Delhi,” Datta said in the complaint. The car, with registration number DL-7C-2567, followed Datta wherever he went on Friday.

He noticed the same car and the three occupants following him from Tara Apartments in Alaknanda on Saturday, after which he called the police control room for help.

A PCR van, which arrived for assistance, cornered the Maruti 800 car and the three men near Datta’s office in Safdarjung Enclave. The car registration number was later found to be fake.

But the three men blurted out to the Delhi police personnel that they were from Intelligence Bureau. While two men ran away from the spot, Datta gave a chase to the third and caught him, the complaint said.

The nabbed intelligence man was the driver of the car and he received several calls from two land-line phone numbers from IB’s office at Sardar Patel Marg. He was later taken to the Sarojini Nagar police station.

When contacted, Datta said the intelligence agency personnel could be tracking him to find out his movements because of a report ‘There is a Spy in My Soup’ he had filed for his magazine’s March 30 edition.

Press Trust of India, April 11, 2009, (New Delhi)

Delhi journalist’s RAW experience

After 26/11 what would expect India’s intelligence agencies to do? Increase vigil on terror modules, look at neighbouring countries more closely and even perhaps launch covert operations to neutralise terrorists. But shockingly they are upto something completely different.

They are tracking the man who tracked them. Saikat Dutta, a senior correspondent at the Outlook magazine, was chased by the RAW for the past few days.

The reason perhaps was his report on the rot in the RAW. How several RAW agents are being recalled for activities like womanizing, financial bungling and serious breach of protocol.

But on Saturday, they were caught at their own game. Two of the agents fled the spot after being exposed. One couldn’t escape and was handed over to the police. But the police too aren’t taking any action, despite a complaint.

Says Saikat Dutta, senior correspondent of Outlook Magazine: “I noticed they were again following me from Tara Appartments when I called in the police.”

Vinod Mehta, Editor-in-chief of the magazine, says: “This is a assault on the freedom of the press. They want to scare Saikat from exposing them more.